A decision by Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins to invalidate two constitutional amendments isn’t necessarily tarnished by partisanship or judicial activism, former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr says. In some ways, Orr told Carolina Journal, Collins’ ruling poses critical questions about the enforcement of a truly constitutional government. In November, North Carolinians voted...
Leslie McCrae Dowless, the alleged mastermind of an election fraud scheme in the 9th Congressional District, was arrested Wednesday and jailed in Wake County. Dowless refused to testify last week at a State Board of Elections evidentiary hearing into widespread election fraud last year in the 9th District. Dowless is the alleged mastermind behind an...
If a Democratic judiciary strikes down popular policies just approved by the voters themselves, most will see the Democrats as the party hostile to popular sovereignty, not the Republicans.
A Wake County judge has thrown out N.C. constitutional amendments requiring photo identification for voters and lowering the cap on the state’s income tax rate. Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins ruled the amendments were unconstitutional because, in his view, the legislators who placed it on the ballot were “usurpers,” elected illegally. Collins noted the legislative...
The Rev. Mark Harris has thrown in the towel on his hopes of going to Congress. He called for a new election in the 9th U.S. Congressional District as evidence mounted of election fraud in Bladen County during the 2018 election. The State Board of Elections agreed, voting unanimously to hold a new election in the...
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Harris testified Wednesday he warned his father, Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Rev. Mark Harris, it was unwise to hire Bladen County political operative McCrae Dowless. But his parents shunned his advice. Mark Harris is in a legal skirmish to be seated in Congress. In the third day of a State Board of...
Andy Yates, the principal campaign strategist for Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Rev. Mark Harris, said he now questions whether McCrae Dowless legally rounded up absentee mail votes that helped to push Harris to an unofficial 905-vote win over Democrat Dan McCready in the 9th U.S. Congressional District. Yates, founder of Red Dome Group, said he had...
The political operative at the heart of the 9th Congressional District scandal won’t tell his story under oath — yet. McCrae Dowless, the main person of interest in an alleged ballot harvesting ring that helped Republican Rev. Mark Harris defeat Democrat Dan McCready in November, appeared under subpoena at a State Board of Elections evidentiary...
The Rev. Mark Harris may know if he should plan to head to Washington, D.C. — or gear up for a new election in the contested 9th Congressional District — within a couple of weeks. The new State Board of Elections on Thursday spent several hours in closed session in a briefing on the board...
Gov. Roy Cooper named three Democrats and two Republicans Thursday to the newly constituted State Board of Elections. The board members’ first big test will be the disputed election in the 9th Congressional District. The new board elected Democrat Bob Cordle of Charlotte chairman in conference call a couple of hours after Cooper’s announcement. Along...
[UPDATED 4:15 p.m. to include Democratic nominees.] The N.C. Republican Party has submitted a list of four nominees for the new State Board of Elections, from which Gov. Roy Cooper will select two. The N.C. Democratic Party offered its list Thursday afternoon, and one prominent name won’t be among its four nominees. Former elections board...
